Tuesday 28th April 2026
Tap & Cap has the potential to revolutionise the way passengers pay for their bus travel. But a key ingredient is trust in the system. TfL has long successfully achieved this with its Oyster Card and, in more recent years, the extension to include debit/credit contactless cards whereby if you hop on and off a bus, tram, Tube or train in London you have every confidence you’ll be charged no more than the appropriate day ticket or even a longer duration cap such as a week. That’s been my long experience of travelling around London and if ever I’ve raised a query, it’s been dealt with over the phone or by email by return and an explanation immediately provided or, in one case, a no quibble refund made.
I wish I could say the same for travel outside of London. In particular my recent experience in Lanarkshire has left me with zero confidence at using Tap & Cap on First’s buses.
Mid March 2026
The First Bus website for Greater Glasgow (remember to “Select Region” on the home page) encouragingly headlines with “Find out more” about “Lanarkshire Network Improvements From 29th March” so prior to my visit at the end of last month I did some clicking to find out what the best ticket for my travels would be.
This takes you to a long list, route by route, of all the changes…
… at the bottom of which is a click through to a “Lanarkshire network map!” (not sure why the exclamation mark – maybe it’s so unusual for there to be a map provided?).
My only concern. looking at this. was the town of Lanark wasn’t included on the map and had dropped off the bottom right hand corner…
… which of course prior to 29th March didn’t matter as First had withdrawn its presence in the town leaving it to be served by JMB Travel and Stuart’s Coaches. I thought I’d better do some research to find out if there’s a day ticket that covers Lanark following these changes.
Clicking on “Tickets” in the top menu bar brought up a long list of menu items including “Tap On, Tap Off” which seemed a good way of paying for my expected travelling around, not having to worry about whether any network tickets had boundaries etc.
Indeed, clicking on it reassured me I’ll “never pay more than the day ticket price for each day that you travel with us, no matter how many journeys you make”.
Scrolling further down the page marked “Tickets” brought forth an explanation of the “ticket options calculated with TOTO” including “Two-Trip” and “FirstDay”…
… which helpfully includes prices and I noted an “Adult (Network)” ticket was £8.30 which I guessed would be the price I would pay. My rookie mistake was failing to scroll even further down the page where, had I done so, I’d have found the rather hidden details of “Promotional Tickets”…
… including an “Adult FirstDay Lanarkshire” for £4.70 which, however, is “On app only”. So nothing to do with Tap On, Tap Off. In fact what this promotional ticket does is completely undermine the promise I’ll “never pay more than the day ticket price for each day that you travel with us, no matter how many journeys you make”. I’ll pay £3.60 more.
Unaware of this promotional offer I began my travels happy that Tap On, Tap Off was the way to go, and off I went.
Tuesday 31st March
I arrived in Motherwell for my first journey on First Bus’s new route 243 from Motherwell all the way to Lanark. I Tapped On and duly Tapped Off as I alighted. I travelled back to Motherwell on a JMB Travel bus with a day ticket I’d bought earlier, on a journey with that company from Glasgow to Motherwell, knowing their day ticket covered every bus route that company operates so used it with confidence.
Next up I took a First Bus route 211 from Motherwell to Airdrie tapping on and tapping off returning to Motherwell with JMB Travel and using my day ticket again.
The final journey was on another First Bus route 211 from Motherwell to Hamilton once again tapping on and off for the third and final time.
Thursday 2nd April
Back home I checked my online credit card statement and noted it contained three entries for First Bus on the Tuesday shown as:
- 31 Mar First Glasgow £7.05
- 31 Mar First Glasgow £6.20
- 31 Mar First Glasgow £6.20
Not knowing if it takes a while for the Day Ticket maximum to kick in and also concerned my credit card wouldn’t “tap off” on a journey I had made the following day, Wednesday 1st April. from Glasgow to Cumbernauld which was showing as 10p (later changing to £7.05) on my statement, I decided to give First Bus’s customer service phone number a call.
It was answered automatically straight away with what I suspect is a permanent message advising they are experiencing “high call volumes” with the suggestion of either calling back later or to fill in a contact form on the website. I decided to do the latter…
As always with these things, the online forms never quite fit the circumstances of what one wants to report.
But I had a go by selecting “failed payment” even though it was actually the opposite – a failed reimbursement as I’d paid too much.
The form then only gives space for one journey to be listed. So I used the “Details of your query (Required)” box to explain things and…
… I’ve long learned to keep a copy before pressing “Send” in such cases as otherwise you don’t have a record and this is what went off at 11:45 on Thursday 2nd April…
I made three journeys on your buses on Tuesday – 243 Motherwell to Lanark; 211 Motherwell to Airdrie; 211 Motherwell to Hamilton. Each time I used Tap On/Tap Off. Please can you advise whether the price I paid should have been capped by the cost of a Day Ticket and if so how much that will be as so far it’s not showing on my bank statement which lists each transaction separately. Secondly on Wednesday morning I travelled on the X25A from Glasgow to Cumbernauld and ‘tapped in’ but when I ‘tapped out’ the machine wouldn’t accept my bank card and the driver said, don’t worry you’ll be just charged a single fare – so far this is just showing as a deduction of 10p. Please advise what fare will be deducted.
Back came an immediate response from “No Reply”…
… advising to expect a reply within “14 working days”. That’s just a day short of three weeks which, for a query about tapping on and off and the price of a couple of tickets, seemed a bit excessive, but that’s First Bus for you. I made a note to expect a response by Friday 24th April (allowing for Easter) or maybe “sooner where possible” and got on with life.
Wednesday 15th April
Well, that’s one way of beating customer expectations. A reply within 13 days instead of 14 working days. Quite an impressive result for First Bus, as at 12:08 on 15th April back came a response from Victor in First Bus Customer Service explaining he’d like to answer my “query as soon as possible” (and this 13 days after submitting it) but needed more information, including whether I “have been charge (sic) more than the normal expected fare cap” which was the point of my query to them! Turns out Victor needed some digits from my credit card so he could look into the matter.
Despite being out and about at the time, I replied immediately (well, five minutes later, at 12:13) with the required information…
… and just over half an hour later, at 12:47, came another email from Victor with news he has “now escalated my query for a refund of £6.20 and £3.80”…
… which raised more queries than answers, wondering why and to who Victor has to escalate such things but even more pertinent why two different amounts were mentioned. I guessed the £6.20 was no doubt in respect of one of the fares that had been deducted, but I couldn’t work out where the £3.80 came from.
I decided not to email back but wait to see what the “escalation” would bring and sure enough 10 minutes later came another email, this time from Khya with “Good news! I can confirm that your refund of £16.95 was authorised today”.
£16.95! Which meant a further £6.95 in addition to the £6.20 and £3.80 Victor had promised. But, again I had no idea why.
Thursday 16th April
Checking my credit card balance I noticed I’d received three payments from First Glasgow in respect of previous dates…
- 31 Mar First Glasgow £6.10
- 31 Mar First Glasgow £7.05
- 2 Apr First Glasgow £3.80
Which raised even more queries as even though the total came to £16.95 I’ve no idea what I was being reimbursed for with no confirmation of what the price of a day ticket actually was (I assume the earlier quoted £8.30). I’d paid a total of £19.45 on 31 March and a further £7.05 for the single journey to Cumbernauld on 1 April making a total outlay of £26.50. Deducting the refund of £16.95 gives a spend of £9.65 which doesn’t match anything. If the day ticket was indeed £8.30 that only leaves £1.35 for the single to Cumbernauld but First reckon they reimbursed me £3.80 for that (I paid £7.05) making for a fare of £3.25.
Monday 27th April 2026
I decided to give First’s National Contact Centre another ring yesterday afternoon to see if they could shed any light on this so I could include the explanation here. Guess what? It was experiencing “high call volumes” but this time I decided to persevere and listened to the full eight options: 1: mobile tickets and app; 2: ‘where my bus is’ 3: timestables and journey planning; 4: feedback about drivers and servcies; 5: ticket prices and fares; 6: lost property; 7: incident, accident or cctv; 8: anything else.
I choose option “5: ticket prices and fares” as I planned to ask what a single fare from Glasgow to Cumbernauld is and confirmation the town of Lanark is included in the £8.30 day ticket area.
Back came the automated response that “we are prioritising queries about the First Bus App and contactless payments and are unable to take your call today” and the National Contact Centre duly cut me off.
What a way to run a company. Hang up on your customers when they call. Tell them to fill in a form which takes three weeks to reply to …. to find out the price of a bus ticket. Unbelievable. But sadly true. With First.
Finally for this sorry tale, I also took a look on the First Bus App yesterday to see if the Promotional Ticket price of £4.70 for a First Day Lanarkshire ticket was available to buy, as advertised on the website (if you can find it) as was still slightly annoyed with myself for using Tap On, Tap Off when, despite the promise, it’s not the cheapest way to travel.
But it wasn’t listed when clicking on “Promotions” as shown above and below with a list only of Cumbernauld promotions with no mention of Lanarkshire…
… but clicking on “Day” on the first menu brought up the following.
… which at least is the same as the price listed on the website as shown earlier.
The upshot of all the foregoing is to explain why I now have no faith in using First’s Tap & Cap nor their ability to answer simple queries in a timely fashion at the “First Bus National Contact Centre“.
I do hope someone who knows the answers at First Bus reads this and perhaps can explain (a) why my Tap & Cap didn’t work; (b) how the £16.95 refund was calculated; (c) what I should have paid; (d) whether a map showing the boundaries of day tickets might be useful; (e) why the £4.70 Promotional FirstDay Lanarkshire ticket advertised on the website as “on app only” isn’t available on the app; (e) whether 14 “working days” is customer service at its best to answer simple queries about ticket prices; (f) whether hanging up on a customer calling about a ticket enquiry is good practice; (g) whether, when a passenger is overcharged, then an apology and the word sorry might be appropriate to include in the responses rather than encouraging participation in “short online surveys”. You’re very welcome to respond in the Comments below so everyone can see, or send me an email which I’ll publish to reassure readers, many of whom no doubt use First Bus and might consider availing themselves of Tap & Cap. Without such reassurance I would advise everyone to avoid it completely.
Roger French
Blogging timetable: 06:00 TThS
BusAndTrainUser 
What utter incompetence. Go Roger!
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A few months ago, a colleague tried using using Tap & Cap with First Eastern Counties. One day she was charged £9 instead of £3 for a single journey. She now drives to work.
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Rather odd to know on call center “contactless payments” given that is not a specific query choice.
maybe call again and use option 8, and if that doesnt work use option 1.
JBC Prestatyn
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I don’t trust tap on tap off, as you’re not in control of anything. Much rather just buy a normal ticket.
Capping isn’t as good as it could be either, even in London – capping for a week starts on a Monday. No good for shift workers who might start their working week on any day of the week. Also no good for people using discounts – only suitable for full price adults.
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It’s completely irrelevant what day of the week shift workers “start”. They’re still going to be working the same average number of days a week from each Monday. To suggest that weekly capping is no good to them really smacks of criticism for the sake of it.
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Think you missing the point; if a weekly cap is a fixed week and starts on a Monday and finishes on a Sunday, if you don’t travel on the Monday and Tuesday, then you may not reach the week cap by Sunday but you could reach a seven multi-day cap if you also then travelled the following Monday and Tuesday.
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That assumes you are only working for one week, and then stopping. The majority of people will be on a rolling week and so it doesn’t make any difference what day it starts, they will be working 5 days out of 7 and so once they’re into the cycle it makes no difference which days those are.
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No they won’t; its a fixed week, that starts every Monday and ends every Sunday and starts again on the Monday, it is not a rolling 7 days.
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I didn’t say that the capping was a rolling week, I said that the person working was doing a rolling week. Unless you’re only working for one week and then stopping, it doesn’t matter if you do Monday to Friday, Thursday to Monday, or Tuesday/Wednesday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday or any other combination, you’re still working 5 days out of every 7.
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Sadly this type of behaviour, could undermine the technology as other operators are more competent in how they deploy it.
The follow up customer service interactions leave a lot to be desired.
One assumes this is the type of thing ‘moving every day’ means to First. Or should it be ‘moving many days’
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It seems there are state secrets less well protected than bus fares. I don’t know how the companies think this helps them encourage passengers to travel.
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Bus fares are complex and confusing and even the drivers dont understand them, With tap on and tap off you have no real idea as to what you will be charged until get your statement which is not really satisfactory
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There is no reason or excuse for bus fares to be complex or confusing. There is a single and maybe a return fare from A to B, there are network tickets that give you a maximum cap for travel within a defined area. It is pitifully easy for a computer to work out what your total payment for the day should be based on the journeys you have made.
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Thanks for the warning – I shall be using various services in this area soon (only one of them First, I think). Further, their website removed diversion updates when Central Station reopened, even though the stops in Union Street still appear to be out of action.
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How about Transport Focus setting some sensible standards for how quickly enquiries should be resolved?
Many rail companies are even worse than First Bus – they seem to be trying to normalise us into accepting 20 Working Days as a reasonable response time. Presumably they get a lot of extra phone calls (from people who can’t wait four weeks to find out about an imminent travel need) but I can only presume that the deterrent effect of the delay (having people not bother asking because it is too difficult) is strong enough to make them feel that this is a good solution for their narrow commercial interest.
But there needs to be some heavyweight pushback against execrable response time, and if Transport Focus want to be taken seriously, this would be a great initiative for them to take up.
I am not optimistic – I think of Transport Focus as a “paper tiger”. But perhaps they would like to surprise us all.
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I’m old enough to remember the days of conductors and ticket machines with the paper ticket whizzing out of the conductor’s machine. How easy life was then 😟
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I also remember the days when you could call any company (irrespective of what market they were in) & get through to a receptionist who would then ask what your enquiry was, then put you through to the respective dept. Of course, like with so many things companies over the past 3 decades have copied U.S. practices (some good but not when it comes to automated receptions, menus & sub menus). Most companies don’t even publish tel.numbers on their websites & when you manage to find one (usually via google) the response is usually ‘we are experiencing very high call volumes therefore you may find contacting us at http://www.etc will provide the answer to your question’ – as Roger found. All simply designed to frustrate & avoid any direct human contact where possible. And they call this progress…
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When and if the English £3 fare cap ends this will become a big problem in England I suspect. “Just tap”, has become almost the default for companies that offer tap on / tap off with what is effectively a flat fare and the tap off reader often not working, or turned off just before the terminus if alighting there. Day tickets, always too complex as your Lanarkshire example shows, often forgotten about in England now.
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Lanark is within Strathcylde zonal ticket areas. This ought to be the solution to multi operator/mode journeys but their website is impenetrable to locate even the simplest of fares, with AI giving a clue but no certainty.
One of a number of experiences in Scotland where I “walked away” due to poor advertising of multi operator ticket. Potential revenue from a visitor just thrown away.
A multi operator ticket exists for Aberdeen called a Grasshopper. When I enquired at a travel centre how do I get a Grasshopper week smartcard I was told it is a paper ticket.
Strathclyde wants franchising, I sincerely hope it simplifies it’s fares like other franchised areas to have a hope of attracting my custom.
John Nicholas
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Hi, great article. For full disclosure I head up a ticketing app called mango used in the East Midlands.
Almost of of these instances could be solved by mango, the app we’ve made literally tries all permutations of every ticket and always gives the best price based on past travel history, you never need to future plan.
I’d love to get your feedback on our app and find out if you think we’re doing things right or where we should improve the customer experience. We truly want to make these kind of frustrations a thing of the past. Dan Hartin (Director of Carriage Return Transport Solutions ltd) dhartin@crtransport.solutions
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Interesting when TrentBarton also do Tap on-Tap off as well. Are you suggesting similar issues if not using the Mango App?
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FirstBus = WorstBus. It excels at doing things badly and has no understanding of how badly it does them. Perhaps another livery change is needed.
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I was bamboozled by the number of “promotional” fares listed. It’s only a bus service, not a low cost airline! Just keep it simple, less is more and easier to understand.
Peter Brown
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Absolutely staggering!
You’re right about TfL – nobody bats an eyelid and all modes are included. Ridiculous deregulation throwback that Lanark has a separate ticket!
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You live deep in the heart of a Tap On, Tap Off area: B&H Buses and Metrobus, have you had any comments about the system from your local friends?
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It’s much better nowadays and greatly improved from when I tried it out back in 2019: https://busandtrainuser.com/2019/11/26/tapping-into-confustion/#more-9050
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The number of people using tap on/tap off on Metrobus is very high, so that I would say 80% of paying passengers (as opposed to ENCTS holders) either use that or have a ticket stored on their phone, so I guess they must be happy with it.
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Trust is the key word for “ToTo” – there are few transactions where the customer does not see the value on a point of sale display, there is no immediate record on your app and no ticket/receipt is given. To build trust, the number of variables on what you could be charged should be minimised and not subject to the complexity of products Roger encountered here.
I don’t understand the enthusiasm for creating systems like ToTo where the customer is blind to the charge (unless confusion is part of the business model!). Apps give the customer visibility, why not build ToTo into an app that calculates the correct fare and sends this to the payment merchant.
PS as a periodic provider of “feedback” to First, their two week timescale to provide a generic AI “we monitor our services” response can only be intended to deter future complaints.
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Another example of the asymmetry of public transport. A customer makes a genuine error on a ticket, which given the complexity can be easy, and it could cost hundreds, while operators make mistakes and expect passengers to accept it.
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As an ENCTS holder I don’t pay a great deal of attention to payment arrangements on buses, and TrentBarton’s Mango is the only TOTO system that I’ve actually observed. Reminders to tap out are frequent on the vehicles but not intrusive, and it seems to be both reliable and popular.
Ian McNeil
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My local bus company is Morebus. I’ve personally found their ‘Tap on, Tap off’ system works really well. Often, when checking my bank balance a 10p deduction shows while the actual fare (currently capped @ £3) will often show within 24 hours. The same applied when I recently travelled on Southern Vectis (also part of Go Ahead South).
As you pointed out Roger the London system also works really well. I only had one occasion to contact TfL when I thought I’d been over-charged. I had arrived at Waterloo & then descended to the Underground to catch a Northern line train to Battersea Power Station. I inadvertently used two separate debit cards to tap on & tap off which meant I was charged a penalty fare. I contacted TfL & explained what I had done & they refunded me the difference. Excellent customer service & outcome.
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Thanks for the article, really helpful to know. Perhaps another example why the centralisation of management in First is not necessarily the way to go.
When taking multiple trips in a day I prefer to buy a day ticket rather than relying on Tap on Tap Off. I’m not very good at remembering to tap off! But when I have used it it has mainly been with Go South Coast who do have an online customer portal where you can provide your card details and check the journeys you have made and how much you were charged which is useful and I’ve never found a problem.
Where I live, Stagecoach don’t have tap on tap off yet so I’m mainly used to just buying a ticket on the bus.
Tony G
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I’ve used it a lot in Oxford (GoAhead), and it always seems to “cap” correctly. Two observations, boarding buses at Oxford station:
(1) Huge numbers of people arrived off a train, boarded a 5 (GoAhead), and a large number “tapped in”. It made for a very speedy loading, which was appreciated.
(2) Next day, similar circumstances, boarded a 1 (Stagecoach), and you’d be amazed the number of people giving the driver a hard time about the lack of “tap on”.
Maybe someone can answer how easy it is for two companies to provide a combined “tap on, tap off”, if Stagecoach did introduce it. Because that would be very useful, knowing I can use either GoAhead or Stagecoach, and be capped at the current one-day joint operator SmartZone price?
Roger, one point that is often missed as an advantage of tap on, tap off – you may board a bus not knowing precisely where you plan to alight. Daft as that might sound, in fact there are quite a few potential circumstances. Starting with tourists, who think “This looks nice, I’ll get off the next stop”.
One funny observation in Oxford. The moment a passenger starts asking “Can I have a ticket to X”, and with a credit card in their hand, the driver puts their left hand over the card reader, and uses the ticket machine with the right hand. To prevent someone touching the reader too early, and so then ends up inadvertantly “tapping in”.
My view – when it works, it’s really good (CH, Oxford)
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I have found out that it’s best to save just one Smartcard for South Western Railways Tap2Go system, and to use another (I use GWR’s Touch Card) for loading tickets such as outboundary London day Travelcards.
Loading ordinary tickets on a card registered for Tap2Go can confuse the system, even though SWR only warn against using them for Flex Season Tickets.
When Govia Thameslink Railway is nationalised (end of May this year) let’s hope that they unify the TOTO system for all the stations on the railway south of the Thames.
Stuart S
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